Curbs on calling dist collectors to Mumbai for dept meetings | Mumbai News

Mumbai: With too many ministers calling district collectors to Mantralaya hampering work at the district level, the state govt has issued guidelines barring departments from calling collectors for meetings. Except for the CM, DCMs and chief secretary, if other departments need to hold a meeting with a collector, it should be held only on Wednesdays and Thursdays and, as far as possible, online, the govt has said.
Before meetings on non-revenue essential matters, the departments should take prior written permission from the revenue department, the guidelines state. All departments that want to call collectors for meetings at places other than district headquarters, including Mantralaya, should avoid calling for meetings without permission of the revenue department, the order said, noting that frequent meetings are hampering the CM’s 100-day programme. The revenue department is headed by BJP minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule.
Officials said the number of meetings was more than usual because the govt was a three-party one with a cabinet of 42 ministers, including the CM and DCMs.
Officials said the collector is head of the district and part of the revenue department. “Along with the work of the revenue department, the district collector has to perform the role of coordination and control with other departments and is responsible for implementation, coordination, and control of various schemes of revenue and other departments at the village, taluka, sub-division and district levels. Therefore, the collector has to attend meetings of various departments of the state govt in person and online. Collectors are invited for meetings by various departments on most days of the week. Due to meetings, the workload on them is increasing,” officials said.
The order said, “Therefore, the work of the revenue department as well as the CM’s 100-day programme is delayed… Instructions are being issued in order to bring orderliness/planning in the work of the collector and to give due justice to the responsibility of the collector.”
Apart from CM Devendra Fadnavis, DCMs Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar too have been holding several review meetings in the past few weeks.